On the same night.

The news spread across the world.

“A Hollywood animation studio gets acquired!”

“Zhang Ye announces the production of an animated film?”

“Zhang Ye forces his way into Hollywood!”

“A Chinese celebrity might be dropping off from the International B-list Rankings!”

“An animated film? An unwise choice!”

“Is it a surge in confidence? Or has something gotten to his head?”

“The Chinese celebrity is acting crazy again!”

..

China.

On Weibo.

“Goddammit!”

“Go watch the news!”

“An animated film? Wasn’t it supposed to be a live-action movie?”

“The acquisition of the movie studio failed, so they ended up buying an animation studio instead.”

“Even so, they shouldn’t be making animated films because of that! Does Zhang Ye have any experience in animated movies?”

“Uh, actually, he does. Have you guys forgotten? Before he went to prison, there was a cartoon called The Legend of Qin that swept aside all of the Japanese cartoons. Wasn’t that directed by Zhang Ye!”

“But that was just a domestic cartoon. It’s nothing compared to a movie!”

“Motherfucker, this fellow has jumped industries again!”

“This guy never stays in the same industry for more than three months!”

..

The UK.

“Holy shit!”

“He’s really going to do it!”

“Is he really going to make an animated film?”

“Although this is also a genre of Hollywood movies, it caters to a very niche audience. Even if they had the best Hollywood director out there to direct it, the box office earnings wouldn’t be high. Moreover, this is going to be his first movie since arriving in Hollywood! He has never been on any Hollywood productions before!”

“What is he planning?”

“God knows!”

“This guy is always doing things the ‘unorthodox’ way!”

..

Japan.

“An animated film?”

“Ah, could this fellow be thinking of making a One Piece movie?”

“Or perhaps, a Naruto movie?”

“You all are overthinking things. Those comics of his have long been castrated.”

“That’s right, shouldn’t you guys know this fellow by now? He’s not that kindhearted!”

“Let’s just wait and see what he’s going to come up with again this time.”

..

America.

At the Directors Guild.

“Hahahahaha!”

“This is cracking me up!”

“Wilson, did you see this?”

“This fellow has really gone to make an animated film!”

“He might as well be asking for death!”

“I am really impressed by his guts.”

“Hollywood movies are the best in the world, but Hollywood animated films are an exception. This Zhang Ye guy has basically chosen a path of no return.”

“We’re gonna be in for a good laugh.”

..

The next day.

In the morning.

At Star Moon Animation Studios. The main business of the company was in animations. It was considered a well-established name in Hollywood, even if it wasn’t a very large company. After all, an animation studio in Hollywood had always been considered a second-class entity. In recent years, Star Moon Animation Studios hadn’t been run well and had only taken in 18 million USD, 17 million USD, and 2 million USD for each of its three animated films that had been released one after the other. Even among the animation studios in Hollywood, they were considered an average company and were on the verge of bankruptcy as well. It was only because of this that they were bought by the Chinese business group.

In the office.

Qian Haitao was walking at the front. “I’ll show you around the place.”

Zhang Ye said, “Sure.”

Ha Qiqi was looking around the place and said, “This is a pretty large place.”

Zhang Zuo nodded. “The atmosphere here is quite different too.”

Little Wang muttered, “So this is a Hollywood studio?”

Before coming over, they had also heard of Star Moon being an average company. Therefore, they didn’t really have any anticipation of the place. It was only after they came here that they discovered it wasn’t like what they had thought. A company of this scale was only considered average in Hollywood? Then what would the top Hollywood studios look like?!

Qian Haitao continued walking as he explained, “This is the company headquarters, but it’s not like we have other branches. The offices are based here, and the production and editing are also carried out here. We’ve already given assurance to the staff and settled them down. Some of the upper management have left their posts along with two animation directors while the remaining technical personnel have all stayed behind. I dare not claim that they are the best in the industry, but they’re still a professional Hollywood animation team. Even if I don’t wish to admit this, Hollywood’s animation teams are much more professional than those in our country. The facilities are also the best out there, so you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve kept an essential team running and made the necessary facilities available, and all of these are the greatest assets that we have at Star Moon Animation Studios.”

The equipment.

The technical staff.

The distribution channels.

All of these were what Zhang Ye needed the most. He could gather up a team to shoot Wolf Warrior 2, and he could also pull people from his studio to shoot Man vs. Wild, but that was not possible for an animated film. Be it him, or his studio’s staff, they were all completely inexperienced in this field. Most of them did not know anything about animation, so Zhang Ye needed the most professional team to help reproduce the script and scenes that he had in mind and make it into an animated film.

Zhang Ye asked, “Who’s in charge at the company?”

Qian Haitao pointed and said, “There, he’s just coming over.”

A Caucasian man strode up with a smile and said, “Boss.”

Qian Haitao said, “Let me introduce you. This is Mark Foran.”

Zhang Ye put his hand out. “Hello, my name is Zhang Ye.”

Mark Foran shook his hand. “I know who you are. Hello, Zhang.”

Qian Haitao said, “Mark is an old friend of mine. Our acquisition this time only succeeded because of him linking us up with the right people. I want you two to work together on this new project. Discuss things often. If there are any differences in opinion—” He looked at Mark Foran. “—let Teacher Zhang make the final decision. There is no need to consult me.”

Mark Foran smiled and said, “I understand.”

Zhang Ye smiled. “Please don’t say that. It’s better that we work things out by discussing them.”

Qian Haitao said in amusement, “Get off it. You’ve invested a larger sum of money than me for this project, so even if there are any disagreements, I’ll still have to listen to you. Therefore, you’ll have the final say for the project. I’ll be cooperating fully with you on my side. I already gave you that promise before we came to Hollywood, so I’d like to deliver on that.”

Zhang Ye nodded. “Alright.”

Qian Haitao asked, “Have you thought of what style of animation you would like to make?”

Zhang Ye said, “I’ll have to do some market research first.”

Mark Foran proactively said, “I’ve got all the information here regarding Hollywood’s animated films from over the years. You can find out anything you need to know about whichever animated films you want. We have all of them on VHS tapes and CDs as well.”

“That would be great.” Zhang Ye smiled and said, “Let me do some research on them first.”

Mark Foran asked, “Which ones have you watched? I’ll get someone to bring over those that you haven’t seen before.”

Which ones have I watched before?

Zhang Ye was a little embarrassed. He said, “Bring all of them over.”

Little Wang burst into laughter.

Ha Qiqi rolled her eyes.

Zhang Zuo also knew very well what this meant.

How could they not know what Zhang Ye’s approach on matters was like?

Mark Foran was taken aback. “That will be too many of them. Shouldn’t we be picking out some titles you haven’t watched before that are worthier to research?”historical

Zhang Ye smiled in embarrassment. “Actually, I haven’t watched any before.”

“What?” Mark Foran was dumbfounded.

Zhang Ye’s explained, “I don’t usually have time to watch movies.”

A group of foreign employees around them were also stunned to hear that!

What?

Haven’t watched any before?

What the hell! You’ve never even watched a Hollywood animation before, but you still fucking decided to go ahead and make an animated film?!

At this moment, everyone from Star Moon felt an unprecedented sense of despair. Just what kind of a director had God sent to them?!